Walk into a room full of automotive enthusiasts and ask about manual transmissions and you'll likely get mixed responses. Sports car purists think a row-your-own, manual gearbox is the only way to go. However, many feel that the new semi-automatic gearboxes where shifts are made by clicking paddles behind the steering wheel are superior. Based solely on how quickly gear changes can be made, fans of the semi-automatic gearbox have a point.

Efficiency and speed aside, many sports car fans won't buy a car without a manual transmission. While BMW sells more cars with automatic or SMG gearboxes, a patent has surfaced that shows the traditional manual transmission still has a place with the BMW brand. The patent shows that BMW is considering a future with manual transmissions that have more than the normal six forward gears common today.

Many automatic transmissions are capable of better fuel efficiency than a manual transmission simply due to the fact that some have more forward gears with high seventh or even eight ratios to cut fuel consumption.

BMW's patent describes the problem was simply adding more gears to the current six speed manual transmission. The patent reads, "an 8 speed manual transmission would need four shift gates for the 8 gears alone." The problem with adding more gates is that it becomes difficult for the driver to shift gears and the potential for accidentally shifting into a lower gear and damaging the engine by over-rev grows.

BMW's solution of adding more gates and the growing complexity for drivers is both insane, and incredibly smart. BMW wants to design a manual transmission that will only allow the driver to shift into the correct gear. Anyone that's accidentally grabbed second on a 4 to 3 shift at speed will appreciate that innovation.

BMWs innovation creates shift gates that are surrounded by a magnetorheologic or electrorheologic fluid. That is a complicated way of saying that the fluid would prevent any improper shift when a voltage is applied to change viscosity of the fluid, therefore physically blocking any gear but the correct gear for downshift. The technology could be used on manual transmissions with a clutch pedal or without.

BMW sees an interesting potential by creating a shift-by-wire transmission where you can shift gears with a lever without having use a clutch pedal. This would be sort of a combination of an automated SMG and a traditional manual transmission. There is no indication of when this technology might come to market at this time, but it sounds like a very good idea.

Porsche already has a seven-speed manual transmission available in the 2012 911.

Ford accepted government loans in 2006 through the Department of Energy. They were repaid in 2011. All auto manufactures have taken on government assistance, wether it be via banks, grants, or direct intervention (in the case of GM/Chrysler.) There is nothing 'wrong' with this, in my opinion, in the same way there was nothing 'wrong' with the government bailing out wallstreet in September 08. This can work to the fed's advantage if done properly as loans generally make profit, something our government needs to reduce our debt.

What's wrong is that they grant loans and bailouts without any regulation, restrictions, time-frame to repay or even REQUIREMENT to repay. That part is ridiculous. Only the US Government would be naive enough to piss away money like that. At least Germany isn't so stupid to let the rest of the EU drag them down without some restrictions, while the countries in the Euro-zone moan about Germany's restrictions. Sorry folks, but when you get yourself into deep shit, there's going to be consequences when someone pulls you to safety. At least their should be, otherwise, you'll just get yourself in deep shit again...

That's not at all true. They didn't take any tarp money perhaps, but Ford has taken millions in federal and state tax incentives over the years. Their Focus EV line qualifies and will take advantage of the rebates as well. So, yeah, get your facts right before you hold them up above the "others". They're no different - it's just a question of when did they take taxpayer money...